You can give it disparaging labels like "Orwellian" all you want, but Nix was telling the unvarnished truth about what works in today's environment. He's describing what happened when human nature met social media.

That's why, while it'll be satisfying to tar and feather Cambridge Analytica et al, we can't get distracted from the need for systemic defenses against these kinds of attacks. Take out CA and another dozen corrupt political consultancies will step up.

It's like gun control: The only thing with any chance of working is to address the instrument by which the crime is committed. You can't change human nature to eliminate uncontrollable rages, but you can make sure there's not a gun handy when they occur.

Similarly, I think the rising tide of demands to regulate the hell out of social media corporations is about the only way we can protect our society from these attacks. Social media is the attack vector, not to mention basically a corrupt business model: What else can you do to make money if you own a social network than to sell information about your users?

Once again, look deep, and advertising is the root of all evil. Pursuit of ad revenue is what made Facebook et al into such destructive propaganda platforms, and why they see reform as suicidal. My vision of paradise includes living in a world that's figured out how to pay for worthy things like journalism, and elections, without whoring to corporations.